The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I rarely have a butterfly pose for me near a flower, so I was pretty happy for this opportunity. It was morning, still cold, and the butterfly didn’t seem particularly active. According to iNaturalist, this is a Small Blue (Cupido minimus) and Leichtlin’s Camassia.
Specific Feedback
Any thoughts appreciated.
Technical Details
Olympus TG-6; 1/500; f4; -1 3/10 EV; ISO100; 41 mm equivalent. This is a great walk around camera I can carry as an adjunct to my R5 and large lens (for birds). It has nice macro capabilities-I was less than a foot from the butterfly -and also will do in camera focus stacking, among other features found on Olympus’s high end cameras.
He is beautiful, Allen. So glad he posed for you like that. The cool morning probably made him more tolerable to you being there. I like how the flowers on the right help balance the image. Nice details in the butterfly.
Wonderful opportunity! The butterfly looks very sharp and detailed. The BG detail was probably unavoidable in shooting but I wonder if it might be mitigated a little in processing. It might be possible to lighten the darkest tones and darken the greens, neither of which would have much impact on the butterfly or flowers. Maybe you would need to select the subject and inverse to keep the dark adjustments from affecting the butterfly.
Super jealous! It’s so hard to get butterfly to hold still for you and to be in a position where it’s all in the focus plane. Well done! I agree though that the background could benefit from a little less detail. It wouldn’t hurt if it was all in focus, but it’s not quite blurry enough in my opinion. In Lightroom anyway, I’d select the butterfly as the subject, then invert the mask and loose clarity, reduce texture, and de-saturate.
Thanks @Shirley_Freeman , @Diane_Miller , and @Paul_Holdorf for your thoughts and recommendations. I wasn’t happy with the background either and originally I did decrease the clarity, etc. on the background, but obviously not enough. Here’s another attempt .
Oh what a beauty, Allen. I love the borderline around the wing edges. Terrific detail and that open wing pose is so hard to catch! In terms of the bg, I’d put it somewhere between for the most natural effect.
Allen, I didn’t say anything about the BG awhile ago because I realized that the camera you were using is a point and shoot, and although they are great for getting close and getting good details in macro, they usually have more DOF they we want when it comes to BGs. I am with @Kris_Smith that something between the original and your re-post maybe. I also forgot to mention that I like the white border that you added around the image. It kind mimics the white border on the butterfly. It is a nice image of this beauty.
